367

The sun dogs 388

"Tan," of mixed breed 389

"Muk," a pure malamute 389

Map of the interior of Alaska showing journeys described
in this book _At end of volume_

TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH A DOG SLED

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Three fundamental facts are to be borne constantly in mind by those who
would form any intelligent conception of the Territory of Alaska.

(1) Its area of approximately 590,000 square miles makes it two and a
half times as large as the State of Texas.

(2) But it is not, like Texas, one homogeneous body of land; it is not,
in any geographical sense, one country at all. "Sweeping in a great arc
over sixteen degrees of latitude and fifty-eight degrees of longitude,"
it is no less than four, and some might say five, different countries,
differing from one another in almost every way that one country can
differ from another: in climate, in population, in resources, in
requirements; and--

(3) These different countries are not merely different from one another,
they are _separated_ from one another by formidable natural barriers.

TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH A DOG SLED

CHAPTER I

FAIRBANKS TO THE CHANDALAR THROUGH CIRCLE CITY AND FORT YUKON

THE plan for the winter journey of 1905-6 (my second winter on the
trail) was an ambitious one, for it contemplated a visit to Point Hope,
on the shore of the Arctic Ocean between Kotzebue Sound and Point
Barrow, and a return to Fairbanks. In the summer such a journey would be
practicable only by water: down the Tanana to the Yukon, down the Yukon
to its mouth, and then through the straits of Bering and along the
Arctic coast; in the winter it is possible to make the journey across
country. A desire to visit our most northerly and most inaccessible
mission in Alaska and a desire to become acquainted with general
conditions in the wide country north of the Yukon were equal factors in
the planning of a journey which would carry me through three and a half
degrees of latitude and no less than eighteen degrees of longitude.

The course of winter travel in Alaska follows the frozen waterways so
far as they lead in the general direction desired, leaves them to cross
mountain ranges and divides at the most favourable points, and drops
down into the